Method for producing mechanical work

ABSTRACT

The invention pertains to the field of power engineering and may be applied to convert kinetic and thermal energy of a working medium into mechanical work. The method includes swirling of a pre-compressed working medium, its expansion in an actuating device to produce mechanical work in the form of rotation of the shaft, and discharge of the working medium from the actuating device. The working medium is swirled in the actuating device along a spatial trajectory in the form of a conical helix, the projection of which on a plane positioned at an angle to the axis of rotation is a curve having at least two breakpoints.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/363,192 filed Jun. 5, 2014, which represents the national stage entry of PCT International Application No. PCT/IB2012/002379 filed Nov. 15, 2012, which claims priority of Great Britain Patent Application No. 1121189.3, filed Dec. 7, 2011, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference here in their entirety for all purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention pertains to the field of power plant engineering (power engineering) and may be applied to convert kinetic and thermal energy of a working medium into mechanical work.

BACKGROUND ART

There are known methods for converting kinetic energy of a working medium into mechanical energy in an engine with rotary motion of the working element. For example, Patents U.S. Pat. No. 3,282,560, Jan. 11, 1966, CH669428, Mar. 15, 1989, and RU2200848, Mar. 20, 2003, cover methods for producing mechanical energy in a gas turbine, where compressed gas energy is converted in the blade system into mechanical work of the shaft. The working medium is at the same time fed into the channels of the turbine rotor and accelerated at the outflow from the channels, the rotation of the rotor being provided.

Low efficiency of converting the internal energy of the working medium into thermal energy and low efficiency of converting the thermal energy of a compressed working medium into mechanical energy are common drawbacks of known methods. The low efficiency of converting the thermal energy of a compressed working medium into mechanical one is explained, in particular, by the fact that (in the frames of a known principle of operation of a heat engine) according to the second law of thermodynamics, the efficiency factor of a heat engine does not depend upon its design and the type of the working medium; rather, it is determined by the temperature difference of the working medium inside the heat engine and at its outflow.

One of the feasible and effective techniques of utilizing the thermal energy of a working medium to a fuller extent is its regeneration after being used in a power turbine. In gas-turbine engines of conventional design, however, regeneration of the thermal energy takes place in the heat exchanger and does not result in a significant effect.

There are known methods for converting thermal energy into mechanical work that consist in additional conversion of the internal heat of the working medium into its kinetic energy, and further into mechanical energy. The complementary kinetic energy is generated in this case from a portion of heat that during known thermodynamic cycles is removed into the heat receiver.

In other known methods, the complementary kinetic energy of a working medium is extracted by means of directional spatial orientation of its micro-volumes (Patent RU2134354, Aug. 10, 1999). According to methods covered by Patents RU2006589, Jan. 30, 1994 and RU2031230, Mar. 20, 1995, the thermodynamic state of the working medium is changed before the latter is introduced into the turbine, and rotary motion is imparted to the working medium at different angles to the turbine rotor shaft. The flow conditions created in this case for the working medium (in particular, specified distribution of peripheral velocities of the working medium micro-volumes is provided depending on the distance to the rotor shaft) are such that a portion of its heat would spontaneously generate an increment to the rotary motion of the working medium itself.

A known method for converting thermal and kinetic energies of a working medium into mechanical work covered by Patent RU2084645, Jul. 20, 1997, consists in the fact that before reaching the blades of a centripetal turbine, the pre-compressed working medium is spirally swirled in a guide assembly and then directed to an acceleration chamber to be expanded and cooled, and after the dynamic pressure acts on the turbine blades, the working medium is compressed. In this case a higher efficiency factor of conversion is achieved by selecting an optimal angle of swirl for the working medium flow in the guide assembly so as to ensure an increase in the velocity of a unit mass of the working medium on approaching the axis of rotation. According to the inventor, this is an essential condition for partial heat transition to rotary motion without enlarging the volume of the working medium, and thus for a higher efficiency factor of conversion.

The efficiency factor gain in the described method may turn out to be less significant because of the need to match the blade shapes of the guide assembly and the turbine.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a projection of the space curve of an announced trajectory at an angle to the rotation axis;

FIG. 2 represents a functional diagram of the apparatus; and

FIG. 3 represents a schematic image of the actuating device design shown in section along the axis of rotation of the shaft.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The technical result which this invention is aimed at consists in the development of an economical method for producing mechanical energy with its relatively easy implementation.

The defined technical result is achieved by the fact that in the method for producing mechanical work, which includes swirling of a pre-compressed working medium, its expansion in an actuating device to produce mechanical work in the form of rotation of the shaft of the actuating device, and discharge of the working medium from the said device, the working medium is swirled directly in the actuating device along a spatial trajectory in the form of a conical helix, the projection of which on a plane positioned at an angle to the axis of rotation is a curve having at least two breakpoints. A segment of the curve may be shaped as a hyperbolic spiral. The lead of the conical helix in a frontal plane passing through the axis of rotation may be made variable. The working medium may be a liquid or a gas. The discharge of the working medium from the actuating device may be accomplished by at least two jets. In a particular case, the working medium is discharged to a closed shell. In a particular case, the shell is made in the form of a blade turbine and mounted with a capability of rotating.

According to the canonical analytic geometry, space trajectory of a working medium as any second-order 3D curve can be uniquely represented by its plane projection at an angle to the rotation axis wherein every point of the curve on the plane corresponds with a point of the space curve. For that reason in order to make an algorithm of execution of an announced trajectory it is convenient to represent the space curve as its projection at an angle to the rotation axis, particularly as its orthogonal projection (at a right angle to the axis of rotation) shown in FIG. 1.

The conical spiral with at least two breakpoints represents a piecewise smooth curve composed of three parts each described with following canonical parametric equations:

1st part: a segment of the conical spiral (0<t<t₁)

f1(t)=χē ₁ +yē ₂ +ē ₃,   (1)

-   -   x=at cos t, y=at sin t, z=bt,         where: ē₁, ē₂, ē₃ are basis vectors,     -   x, y, z, t are temporaries,     -   a, b are constants chosen for maximum efficiency     -   t₁, t₂ are conical spiral breakpoints         2^(nd) part: a segment of a straight line between inflection         points (t₁≤t≤t₂):

$\begin{matrix} {{f_{2}(t)} = \frac{z - {{bt}\; 1}}{b\left( {{t\; 2} - {t\; 1}} \right)}} & (2) \end{matrix}$

-   -   3rd part: a segment of the conical spiral (t>t₂) with the         equation same as (1)

Any segment of the curve mentioned above can be made in a shape of a hyperbolic spiral. When the working medium moves along the hyperbolic spiral an additional “vortex source” with considerable energy potential is created. As a rule it is appropriate to do tail ends of the trajectory in this manner, where the working medium jet outcome of the swirler takes place.

In this case a segment of the curve is described with the following equation:

$\begin{matrix} {{x = {\alpha \frac{\cos \; t}{t}}},{y = {\alpha \frac{\sin \; t}{t}}},{z = {\beta \; t}},} & (3) \end{matrix}$

where: α, β are constants chosen for maximum efficiency.

The distinctive feature of the suggested method is the fact that the trajectory of the working medium move has breakpoints. The breakpoints on a conical spiral are responsible (as the applicant reasonably affirms) for discontinuous change in quantum-mechanical state of the system the working environment represents. This change initiates the processes mentioned above which impart additional heat release in the vortex and lead to the suggested technical result.

The essence of the suggested method is the fact that the increment velocity of the rotary motion is provided by generating the rotary motion from a portion of heat removed to the heat receiver during implementation of known thermodynamic cycles.

The method is based on a statement (proved scientifically and experimentally) that heat release in a gas vortex is capable of inducing large-scale azimuthal motion, increasing the total flow circulation (Yusupaliyev U. et al. “Heat Release as a Mechanism of Self-Sustaining of Gas Vortex Flow”, Applied Physics, 2000, No. 1, p. 5-10) [1]. This work analyzes the mechanism of converting latent thermal energy into the kinetic energy of a vortex flow and demonstrates the connection of the conversion factor with the rotary velocity of the flow and the size (geometry) of the operating region of a heat source.

The efficiency of converting thermal energy into the kinetic energy of azimuthal motion is expressed as:

${\frac{\Delta \; \kappa}{\Delta \; Q} \approx \frac{{Q^{2}\left( {r_{2} - r_{1}} \right)}^{2}}{c_{P}T_{o}}},$

-   -   where: ΔK—kinetic energy increment         -   ΔQ—thermal energy increment         -   Q—thermal energy         -   r₁, r₂—heat source boundaries (i.e., a heat source of             T₀ρ₀c_(p) f(r) volume density is acting in a region confined             by r₁<r<r₂)         -   T₀—temperature of the heat receiver         -   c_(p)—heat capacity of the working medium

It is also shown that the spatial spectrum of the rotary velocity of the vortex core is determined by function f(r) in which r is a polar coordinate of the heat disturbance region.

The suggested model gives a good description of processes occurring in a vortex (tornado), where heat is released as a result of recombination and aggregation of molecules.

On the other hand, the work by Akhiyezer A. I. and Berestetsky V. V. “Quantum Electrodynamics”, Moscow, Nauka, 1969 [2] demonstrates that complementary energy may be released in the form of heat as a result of production and destruction of electron-positron or other pairs of elementary particles occurring in the process of creation of quantum-mechanical resonance with the positron state of the Dirac's matter. As a trigger action aimed at putting the system that contains the working medium into the mentioned quantum-mechanical resonance, a required energy density per volume unit of the working medium is created, as well as a required density of momentum or of its moment. This is achieved by directional spatial orientation of the motion of the working medium micro-volumes with the provision of a step change in the quantum-mechanical state of the mentioned system. Such forced motion of the working medium along defined trajectories in the quantum-mechanical meaning of this concept provides phase changes in the working medium micro-volumes near the trajectory breakpoints.

Therefore, heat release in the vortex is transformed into the rotary motion of the working medium micro-volumes leading in its turn to additional heat release. An avalanche process develops that results in imparting an additional torque to the shaft and thus increases the efficiency of producing the mechanical work.

The additional torque is imparted to the shaft as well by the working medium outflow from the actuating device in at least two jets tangential to the circumference in a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the shaft. The dynamic pressure of the jets allows the internal energy of the working medium to be used to the fullest extent.

The actuating device is enclosed in a rotatably mounted shell with the formation of an annular space that maintains the working medium in full volume for the purpose of its further regeneration in order to arrange a closed work cycle of producing the mechanical work. If the shell and the actuating mechanism mounted on the same shaft are rigidly coupled, energy loss may be caused by the fact that according to the angular momentum conservation law, the net torque created on the rotor is compensated for by a reciprocal moment produced by deceleration of the used working medium on the inner surface of the shell.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

The method for producing mechanical work may be implemented in an apparatus the best embodiment of which is described in this section. FIG. 2 represents the functional diagram of the apparatus. FIG. 3 represents a schematic image of the actuating device design shown in section along the axis of rotation of the shaft.

The basic element of the apparatus is actuating device 1 containing guide assembly (“swirler”) 2 that forms space trajectory for the working medium. Swirler is a linear bushing with several channels in its body (two in this particular device), each representing a conical spiral with two breakpoints.

As has been mentioned above, the form of each of the channels is described with expressions (1), (2) and (3), given predetermined values of constants, swirler dimensioning specifications and the necessity to reach the highest efficiency factor.

For the same reasons the step of the conical helix may be chosen as variable.

On the basis of working formulae mentioned above the applicant created a program under which a device with numerical control produces mechanical work over a work piece in order to make channels of a required form in its body.

Swirler 2 is rigidly secured on shaft 3, which is the axis of the apparatus, and is enclosed in rotatably mounted shell 4. The shell of the actuating device in a particular case is made in the form of a blade turbine.

There is a clearance between swirler and the shell allowing the working medium to outflow from its channels. The actuating device is equipped with inlet pipe branch 5 for the working medium and outlet nozzle 6 to discharge the working medium from the actuating device.

Mechanically coupled to the shaft of the actuating device are mechanical energy sink shaft 7 (for example, rotor shaft of an electric machine) and compressor shaft 8. The compressor outlet closes on the inlet pipe branch of the actuating device, while its inlet closes on the outlet pipe branch for providing a closed cycle of producing mechanical energy.

In order to simplify the process of channels 9 implementation in the work piece body, the latter may be composed of two parts.

The method for producing mechanical work is implemented as follows.

The working medium (water, viscous fluid, gas) pre-compressed in compressor 8 is supplied via inlet pipe branch 5 of the actuating device to swirler 2, where it is swirled along a trajectory determined by the shape of channels 9 in its body. The working medium outflows through each of the channels at a tangent to the circle lying in the plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the shaft, generating reaction forces that impart torque to the actuating device.

Heat released due to working momentum move on a calculated path representing a conical spiral with breakings imparts additional torque to the actuating device.

At high rate the flow enters a cavity enclosed in the shell and interacts with the shell through friction. Lower friction loss is achieved by making the shell capable of rotating or in the form of a blade turbine.

The rotation of the actuating device shaft causes the rotation of the shaft of a mechanical user sink like the electric motor.

Used working medium returns from outlet nozzle 6 to the inlet of the compressor for recycling.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The method may be applied industrially to produce mechanical energy in power engineering, transport and other industries for which the efficiency of heat engines plays a major role. 

We claim:
 1. A method for producing mechanical work, the method comprising: swirling a pre-compressed working medium in an actuating device along a spatial trajectory in a form represented by a piecewise smooth curve composed of first, second and third parts, wherein the first part is a segment of a conical spiral described by a canonical parametric equation, the second part is a segment of a straight line, and the third part is a segment of a conical spiral described by the canonical parametric equation; and providing a shaft in the working medium, the shaft being rotated by the working medium to produce mechanical work.
 2. The method according to claim 1, in which a segment of said curve is shaped as a hyperbolic spiral.
 3. The method according to claim 1, in which the discharge of the working medium from the actuating device is accomplished by at least two channels.
 4. The method according to claim 3, in which the working medium is discharged to a closed shell.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the canonical parametric equation is: f1(t)=xē ₁ +yē ₂ +zē ₃ where x=at cos t, y=at sin t, z=bt and ē₁, ē₂, ē₃ are basis vectors; x, y, z, and t are variables, a and b are constants selected for efficiency and f1 (t) is valid for 0<t<t₁.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second part is a segment of a straight line between inflection points where (t₁≤t≤t₂), the straight line described by following equation: ${f_{2}(t)} = \frac{z - {{bt}\; 1}}{b\left( {{t\; 2} - {t\; 1}} \right)}$
 7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the third part is a segment of a conical spiral where t>t2.
 8. An apparatus for producing mechanical work, the apparatus comprising: a shell comprising a shell inlet and a shell outlet; a swirler mounted to a swirler shaft in the shell, the swirler comprising a plurality of channels, each of the channels formed to provide a spatial trajectory in a form represented by a piecewise smooth curve composed of first, second and third parts, wherein the first part is a segment of a conical spiral described by a canonical parametric equation, the second part is a segment of a straight line, and the third part is a segment of a conical spiral described by the canonical parametric equation; a compressor comprising a compressor inlet and a compressor outlet, the compressor inlet coupled to the shell outlet and the compressor inlet coupled to the shell inlet; a compressor shaft coupled to the swirler shaft and the compressor; and a mechanical energy shaft, coupled to swirler shaft and adapted to be coupled to a machine to produce mechanical work; wherein a working medium is compressed in the compressor, is supplied to the shell inlet, outflows through each of the plurality of channels in the swirler and generates a force to impart torque to the shell shaft, causing the mechanical energy shaft to rotate.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the shell is rotatable.
 10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the working medium outflows from the channels at a tangent to a circle lying in a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the shaft to generate a reaction force that imparts torque on the shell.
 11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein there is a space between the swirler and the shell.
 12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein heat released due to the working momentum imparts additional torque to the shell.
 13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein working medium exits the shell outlet and returns to the compressor inlet for reuse. 